Go Green With Nike’s Considered Design

Companies that are looking to reduce their carbon footprint (and, yes, gain market share by touting their “green-ness”) need to consider both product and corporate sustainability.  These days, its not enough to reduce packaging and use recycled materials.  21st century businesses also need to examine how to reduce energy consumption and more within their own operations.

Nike Considered Design

The Portland, Oregon based athletic gear store, Nike, has been making great strides (forgive the pun) in going green recently.  Founding Nike Considered Design, the company has adopted a new plan that intends to do “more good,” for the environment, not only “less bad.”  Lorrie Vogel explained at the State of Green Business Forum in Chicago:

“We want to do more than less bad, what we want to do is create a vision on what does good ultimately look like for Nike.  For us, it’s about creating closed-loop products, taking materials from an old shoe and an old shirt, grinding it up and turning them into a new shoe, a new shirt.”

In the coming months, Nike intends to reduce overall material use, reduce toxics in its products, and design products to be recyclable.  No wonder the company that has told us to “Just Do It” could soon be saying:

Eco-friendly to the MAX!

To help the success of Nike Considered, the company helps guide its designers through use of a scoring system on elements such as toxic chemicals, recyclability, and more.  The so-called “Considered Index” even suggests alternatives to improve the product’s environmental score.

Nike’s Considered Design is not just limited to shoes.  For example, its World Cup jerseys for the 2010 South Africa games were made of 100 percent recycled polyester.  The positive environmental impact was the equivalent of reusing 13 million plastic bottles.  In addition, the company has:

• Cut waste by 19%
• Increased use of eco-friendly materials by 20%
• Reduced VOCs by 95%
• Doubling use of recycled polyester between 2009 and 2010

The overall environmental impact of Nike’s corporate sustainability efforts is equal to energy savings that would be realized if it produced 15 million fewer pairs of shoes!

Now, Nike has established a goal of 100% of its footwear to meet Considered Design standards by the end of this year.

Nike has urged us to “Just Do It,” and now its taking Considered Design to the marketplace, sharing ideas, processes and intellectual property with other corporations.  In 2009, Nike launched the GreenXchange, an online idea sharing platform for companies to put their heads together with respect to saving energy and reducing carbon footprints.

Corporations coming together for the greater good?  Let’s run with that.